Baroness Amos: My right honourable friend the Minister of State for Northern Ireland has made the following Ministerial Statement.
	I am pleased to announce that the Northern Ireland Discretionary Social Fund budget for 2005–06 will be £59.59 million. Some £13.32 million will be allocated to grants; £46.17 million to loans and £0.1 million will be held as a contingency reserve. The new allocations represent an increase of £1.34 million over the initial gross budget set at April 2004. This increase will be funded through higher loan recoveries, plus an increase in net Treasury funding of £0.68 million for this year. This £0.68 million is the third and final instalment of the increases to the discretionary social fund announced in the autumn 2002 Pre-Budget Report.
	The community care grant budget has been increased by £0.68 million to £13.32 million. This will provide more help to customers, in particular families with children and the disabled.
	The loans budget has been increased to £46.17 million, an increase of £0.66 million on the initial 2004–05 loans budget. To improve the fairness of the scheme, budgets will be allocated in a way that will over time achieve greater consistency of outcome for customers wherever they live.
	Details of the budget allocations, together with a note explaining the basis on which they have been made, have been placed in the House of Commons Library.